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In
this months's books, two international peace makers offer
their solutions for uniting the world: and a study of
South Africa shows how big business helps keep it divided.
Editor:
Anuradha Vittachi |
 Paths
to peace
Beyond
Discrimination
by Theo L. Westow
University
Press of America (pbk)$11.50
True
Justice
by Adam Curle
Quaker
Home Service (pbk) £1.90
These
two books landed on my desk when the South Atlantic conflict
was at its height They read like tracts for the times, although
Theo Westow’s book was written in 1969 and has spent a
while in search ofa publisher.
The
context in which I read them gave a considerable sharpness to
the questions they raised.
Theo
Westow, in Beyond Discrimination, is concerned with the way in
which nationalism divides our world For him it begins
with the
idea of the individual in his isolation, who then becomes the
building block of the nation state. In his terminology, we
need ‘persons’ not ‘individuals’.
The
quality of the person is tobe concerned with relationships. He
or she is aware of being a member of the human family and
therefore, fundamentally, understands that quality of self-sacrifice
which
makes it possible to be a convinced member of a world community.
The individual, by contrast, is always aware of rights, of
boundaries which must not be crossed, of the danger posed
by invasion from
others.
Such
ideals have to be given practical expression Westow’ s
prescription is for nationalism to be absorbed into a supranational
authority and he sees the United Nations as capable of fulfilling
this role. The picture which emerges is somewhat idealised. ‘This
structure must be genuinely representative of the whole
human community, supple enough to remain adaptable to new
needs, firmly enough in
control to prevent individualistic nationalism from turning
into anarchy..
He
does little to cope with the problem of
how such a body can exercise its power. All the problems
of conflict between nation states are multiplied when
there is
one central
authority seeking to manage angry minorities and persuade
them that majority interest must prevail It seems likely
that the
structural solution will simply provide opportunities
for dissident groups
to rebel against the central rulers as an alternative
to conflict between nations.
The
Falkiands dispute put a question mark against any suggestion
that a body like the United Nations would
be able to exercise
a moral authority that would be acceptable at a crisis
point Every
nation appears to be in favour of UN decisions except
when they apply to themselves. The British Government
believed
that Israel
should submit to UN resolutions but preferred to keep
the Falklands issue in its own hands. Critical insights
abound
when other
people’s
interests are at stake: rationality
disappears when the justice of one’s own cause
is called into question the same mechanism that operates when we
see exactly what to do with other people’s
children but are unable to cope with our own. We
need human beings, regions and
nations who are capable of handling their aggression
in a way that turns it to creative use
rather than stifling it We will not be saved by structures.
By
contrast, Adam Curle’s book, True Justice, is about the
task of peacemaking. It hinges upon the Quaker conviction that
there is ‘that of God in every human being’. The philosophy
of Quaker peacemakers is based upon evoking from those in conflict
their best selves. Writing of his own experience as a peacemaker,
he says’when I have visited someone who might have been described
as an’awkward customer’, I have tried
to reject that description and go in the spirit
of meeting a friend whom I like
and respect It is remarkable what a difference
this makes to human contact, it becomes alive and
warm.
I have also reminded myself
of the strain, anguish and fear which most leaders
experience in times of tension Leaders are lonely;
the more grim their circumstances,
the lonelier they become.’
This
book centres upon personal solotions and not structural ones.
It certainly is one very
important
strand in
the whole process
to which the human race must address itself
if it is to survive. It needs, however, to be linked
with
a
clear recognition
of the economic realities which lie behind
any justice in
the
distribution
of the world’s resources.
Perhaps
he would reject this criticism because his intention was precisely
not to focus on
the large
issues which
make people feel
without resources to cope. I hope that what
I am saying will be of encouragement to those
people,
of whom I
meet so many,
who do
not see what they can do to alleviate the
miseries of the world. But the great issues are built
on
the foundation
of countless
smaller ones. Every time we see love where
there was hatred,
we re-adjust
the balance of the cosmos.’ Michael Hare Duke
Dangers
of moderation
Decoding
Corporate Camouflage:
US business support for apartheid
by Elizabeth Schmidt
Institute for Policy Studies (pbk) $4.95
A
New History of Southern Africa
by Neil Parsons
Macmillan (pbk) £3.95
 In
1971, General Motors took the unusual step of electing onto its
board a black civil rights leader. The Rev. Leon Sullivan was
famous, or infamous, for organising massive boycotts in Philadelphia
of racially discriminatory businesses.
At
his first board meeting. Sullivan challenged General Motors to
withdraw its business from South Africa outright The
give-em time attitude, he felt, was a sham: ‘people always want
to go slow when the rights of black men are at stake’. But no- one
on the board supported him. Four years on, frustrated by the criticism that
he
wasn’t helping to loosen the deadlock, he produced a more moderate
plan.
His
code of conduct for American companies doing business in South
Africa, nicknamed the’ Sullivan Principles’, caught
on rapidly. Companies that had been getting uneasy about defending
their ethical stance took refuge
behind the new code, which was full of well intentioned principles like ‘equal
pay for equal work’. But, as women in the West have begun to realise,
that’s a meaningless right to offer where the opportunity of obtaining
equal work is pretty well nonexistent.
In Decoding Corporate
Camouflage,
Elizabeth Schmidt shows how the ‘moderate’ code actually
helps prolong the exploitation of black workers. Despite its polysyllabic
title, it’s a succinct, clearly argued and fact-packed
study that documetits the ways in which big business willingly collaborates
with a racist and violent government to reinforce apartheid. A
New History of Southern Africa is a history textbook that tells
the colonial story
from the ‘native’ viewpoint; meticulously researched, economically
priced, and fascinatingly illustrated with many original photographs.
A step in the
right direction for teachers and students. C. S. and A. V. |
new
internationalist 117
